It's time for the chicken bus again. This time it was a minibus version: more touristy, more expensive, but just as crowded and death-defying. Saturday morning we took the bus to Panajachel, also fondly known as Gringocastenango (guess why?). This small town on the shore of the magnificent lake Atitlan only has two kinds of people: buyers and sellers. The sellers, all local, persistently offer their local trinkets to buyers, who are naturally all foreigners, and everyone's happy. But there's more to see in this town than traditional garments: The lake Atitlan, nestled by three tall volcanoes in a mile-high caldera. Sweeping views and deep blue water make this the second most visited attraction in Guatemala (after Antigua). Here, judge for yourself:



The other attraction in the area (and possibly the third most visited site) is the nearby town of Chichicastenango. And when we say nearby, we mean few kilometers, not few gut-wrenching cliff-hanging nauseating minutes on a chicken bus. Chichi is mainly known for its market days, Thursday and Sunday, when villagers from the surrounding areas gather for a colorful chaos. And what do you know, by sheer coincidence or careful planning it was Sunday today, and we partook in this chaos ourselves. It's again hard to describe all the sights and smells and sounds of the market. It's also hard to move about in the market, pushing and shoving among a gazillion locals and foreigners alike. The locals swim effortlessly through the crowds, wearing traditional colorful garments and carrying huge bundles on their heads and tiny babies on their backs.



The tourists move slower, since they are both too polite to shove and too dazed by hordes of peddlers with big eyes and special-for-you prices. But one mustn't be fooled by the special prices—it is a simple matter to get the regular prices, which often are less than half. In fact, most sellers would be dissapointed if you didn't haggle, and might even throw you a better price after you've agreed to pay. There's also a food section, where the locals cook on coal stoves. The menu is pretty much fixed: fried chicken with tortillas, rice, and fries. There's dozens of them standing and patting their tortillas, and if there's a good way to choose among them, it eluded us. So we chose the first one that offered hot chile sauce, and hot it was.

This market is a great place for people-watching, as well as for picking up beautiful handmade woven fabrics, wooden artifacts, leather products, and other regional crafts. If you can take the crowds, pollution, and haggling, the lake and the market are two spots you can't miss in Guatemala.